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However, the game's potential to shine was let down by slightly repetitive combat mechanics, an inconsistent and not very original story and a number of graphical issues that consistently broke the game's otherwise immersive tropical island setting.

Despite these problems there was still plenty to like about the first Dead Island, which is why in its sequel Dead Island: Riptide we hoped to see a refined version of the original game that made good on the series' inherent promise. Sadly though, our optimism is yet to be rewarded and we have been treated to a title that only makes at best nominal changes to the Dead Island formula.

At its heart, Dead Island: Riptide remains a four player, mission based cooperative brawler that tasks you survive a zombie apocalypse using whatever weapons and equipment you can find. The mission based format uses the same dialogue and explorative elements as the first game, tasking you to pick up quests from non-player characters or uncover them by exploring the game's open world tropical island setting.

Missions range from story based quests that forward the game's main narrative to survival based side excursions. Side quests provide the most variety, tasking you to do things like defend a fellow survivor from a horde of flesh hungry zombies or collect essential supplies like food and water for your camp.

Looking to keep things interesting, Deep Silver has also integrated role-playing character levelling and loot mechanics to the game. The character levelling system follows the familiar character development formula seen on most RPG titles. Your character levels up whenever they gain enough experience points, which are earned by killing enemies and completing quests. For your effort, every time you level up you're rewarded with one statistical point that can be used to unlock a talent from your character's skill treeThe game has five playable characters, each with their own skill tree and specialisation. For example, newly added character John Morgan is a punching specialist whose skill set focuses on knuckle duster style weapons and survival, while series veteran Xian remains a knife and stealth specialist.

The loot system is fairly similar to those seen on other survival horror titles, likeDead Space 3. The game lets you pick up random items littered across the game's map to create or upgrade already made weapons using workbenches.

Weapons in general are close combat focused as guns don't really make an appearance until far later in Riptide's narrative. Types of weapon include things like hand-to-hand, blade, heavy and blunt. Hand-to-hand weapons are things like knuckle dusters, while blades are knives and swords, heavy are things like baseball bats and boat paddles and blunt are smaller items like hammers and tire irons.

The upgrade system lets you gradually modify the weapons using blueprints and items such as scavenged car batteries, duct tape and super glue to turn a basic kitchen knife into an electrified zombie-carving automatic saw.

The loot and character leveling systems are two of Dead Island: Riptide's most interesting features and go a long way to make up for its lackluster combat and story mechanics.

Combat in Dead Island: Riptide is largely the same as in the original Dead Island, tasking you to punch, pummel and slash your way through increasingly larger hordes of zombies. Each character starts off with basic melee and kick attacks, though special custom attacks can be unlocked using the game's upgrade system.

Each attack you launch uses up some of the character's stamina bar, which when depleted leaves you vulnerable to be knocked over and mobbed by zombies. Melee attacks are your staple attacks and can be activated using the right trigger (on the Xbox 360) and are the primary way you do damage. Kick attacks are more defensive measures, letting you knock zombies back when they get too closeSpecial attacks vary character to character and range from custom sword slashes to rugby style spear tackle takedowns and are activated by using a variety of button combinations.

The problem is that, in general, you can get by just by using the basic melee attack, manically hitting the punch button until every enemy is dead. In fact, at times using the special attacks or trying to get creative with your strategy can backfire. This is because the attacks drain far more stamina than regular melee hits while being only marginally more powerful, meaning that using them more often than not leaves you needlessly vulnerable and open to being mobbed by surviving enemies.

Luckily, the oversimplicity of the combat is counteracted by the enjoyment you can have taking advantage of Riptide's online cooperative features. Riptide lets you drop in and out of players' games or bring them into your own. It does this by alerting you whenever someone playing the same section of the game as you is nearby, offering you the options to join their game with a simple press of the left D-Pad.

Up to four players can join any one game, and in general we found that playing the game with friends greatly improves the Riptide's otherwise dull combat. This is because when playing with friends the game increases the number of enemies hunting you, thus forcing you to take a more considered approach when entering combat.

This is especially true when playing one of Dead Island: Riptide's survivor sections. These are points in the game that task you to defend a specific section of land from increasingly large waves of Zombie opponents. The sections also have a strategic element that tasks you to set up the area's defences before the zombies arrive. This lets you pick where to set up barricades and sentry guns before the horde arrives. When teaming up with three other human players, we found these sections to be the most varied and enjoyable in the game.

The game's narrative is also disappointing. Dead Island: Riptide picks up directly from where the original game left off, seeing the original Dead Island's ragtag group of four survivors meet brooding ex-army bad boy John Morgan and get shipwrecked on a new zombie infested island. Not giving away any spoilers, but the narrative makes a classic Romera movie look like the works of Shakespeare, with the lacklustre dialogue and over the top voice acting making every cutscene painful or at best funny - for the wrong reasons - to sit throughDead Island: Riptide also suffers from a number of technical graphical issues that further ruin any chance of getting immersed in the game's plot. Powered by the Unreal engine, the game in general looks great. The game's jungle textures, bump mapping and light rendering when viewed in less manic sections create a wonderful, Temple of Doom style atmosphere that makes you painfully aware that danger is all around you.

Dead Island Riptide pc 2013 PC Game installing Information: 

Step 2: Install game and enjoy.